Hostile Media Perception in the Age of Social Media: The Role of Social Identity

dc.contributorBillings, Andrew
dc.contributorBolland, Anneliese
dc.contributorParrott, Scott
dc.contributorPederson, Josh
dc.contributorTullett, Alexa
dc.contributor.advisorBissell, Kimberly
dc.contributor.authorCooks, Eric
dc.contributor.otherUniversity of Alabama Tuscaloosa
dc.date.accessioned2022-04-13T20:33:51Z
dc.date.available2027-09-01
dc.date.issued2020
dc.descriptionElectronic Thesis or Dissertationen_US
dc.description.abstractIn an effect known as hostile media perception (HMP), a perceptual bias believed to be driven by social identity processes, partisans tend to view objective news media as hostile towards their position. As advances in digital technology increase online news use, the inherent features and communicative properties of these technologies can influence how we express ourselves online and how we perceive online news content. This dissertation examined the impact of identity-related heuristics within social media comment on the HMP. Taking a social identity approach, a series of experiments tested the effects of audience position on the issue of arming teachers and perceived comment identity on the HMP. Audience position had a significant effect across studies as supporters of arming teachers reported greater HMP; evidence points to religiosity as a potential moderator of this relationship. Results for comment identity were mixed. Outgroup comments generally led to increased HMP; however, the difference was not significant across studies. There was also evidence of associations between outgroup comments and affective responses of defensiveness and negative emotion. The findings of this study offer support for the self-categorization explanation of the HMP, while contributing methodologically to the study of the HMP in the context of mobile social media. Results are discussed in light of literature on social identity and biased perception of online news.en_US
dc.format.mediumelectronic
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.otherhttp://purl.lib.ua.edu/182057
dc.identifier.otheru0015_0000001_0004210
dc.identifier.otherCooks_alatus_0004D_14265
dc.identifier.urihttps://ir.ua.edu/handle/123456789/8389
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Alabama Libraries
dc.relation.hasversionborn digital
dc.relation.ispartofThe University of Alabama Electronic Theses and Dissertations
dc.relation.ispartofThe University of Alabama Libraries Digital Collections
dc.rightsAll rights reserved by the author unless otherwise indicated.en_US
dc.titleHostile Media Perception in the Age of Social Media: The Role of Social Identityen_US
dc.typethesis
dc.typetext
etdms.degree.departmentUniversity of Alabama. College of Communication and Information Sciences
etdms.degree.disciplineMass communication
etdms.degree.grantorThe University of Alabama
etdms.degree.leveldoctoral
etdms.degree.namePh.D.
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